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Olympics on NBC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Well, NBC was trending this afternoon on Twitter across the U.S. - and not because of some hilarious new sitcom. No, it's the wired multitudes taking to that interconnected series of tubes to blab about the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics ... and NBC's shockingly unaware decision to black out - sorry, "delay" - the world's most interesting and anticipated live event of the summer.

You remember live events, right? Last time we checked, audiences were actually returning to live TV because they wanted to participate in live (there's that pesky word again) conversations with their digital compadres on Twitter and Facebook and other social networks. Experts agree: large live audiences require that special social sauce. But guess what? It doesn't work if the show isn't ... er ... live!

CBS gets it. Their telecast of the Grammy's earlier this year grabbed the largest audience since 1984, mainly because of the vast back-channel conversation blasting through Twitter and Facebook. It was snarky, it was goofy, it was great fun - but you had to watch live to participate. As a recent Nielson report says, people are turning to non-traditional ways to watch television. For American audiences this afternoon, the opening ceremonies are indeed on live - but not on NBC. Tonight's delay will certainly be watched by many, but it won't have the same level of participation because - and I'm not going out on much of a limb here - it won't be live.

Meanwhile, the reviews of NBC's decision to punt on Olympics coverage in the age of social media were brutal. Guardian networks reporter Matt Wells tweeted: "NBC showing complete contempt for its audience by not showing or streaming Olympics opening ceremony live." Here are some choice critics words as NBC has a worse London kick-off than Mitt Romney:

Without NBC live streaming of the Olympics opening ceremonies, I'll have to rely on @MittRomney's tweets.

And those are some of the least profane examples. And there are other Olympic trends as well: Queen Elizabeth, Voldemort, Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Harry Potter, James Bond, Mike Oldfield, Daniel Craig and others. But because NBC has the American rights to (eventually, somewhere down the line, they'll get to it) "broadcast" these Olympic games, you'll have to wait to find out why.